Wednesday, 19 June 2013

Scandinavia is a true Walhalla when it comes to metal music as you may now. Swedish band Colussus are trying to stick out in the broad choice of metal bands. After releasing an EP, Wake is their first serious attempt. They get their inspiration from bands like Mastodon, Kyuss and Tool. Especially influences by that first band can be heard. You have to think of sludge metal for the most part, sometimes leaning towards stoner, doom and hard rock. In short this means heavy stuff that's not always light to swallow.

Since the record doesn't go down easy, despite all good intentions. The band is tight and is trying to vary a lot. They did succeed at that by using dynamics and tempo changes and the nine songs are very diverse. But the mediocre production is spoiling it. The drums are too prominent in the mix and the loud snare hits are even distracting. The whole record sounds pretty bad and that's just a real shame. Singer Niklas Eriksson has a way of singing that can get on your nerves after a while. This is very personal of course, but it sounds as if he's trying to enforce his vocals without really finishing them. Some vocal effect is also used now and then, that is thrown around too much.

The long player is really out of balance because of this and therefore the band can't really convince. Despite the help of master drummer Morgan Ågren‎, that you may now from his work with Frank Zappa. He's playing along on 'Kingdoms', one of the better tracks on the second half of the record. That is without a doubt the better half, with fine songs like 'Fungal Gardens' and highlight 'Suncarrier'. It shows the band does have potential and is able to discriminate themselves from the masses. Prog-rock elements are alternating with heavy riffs and swampy grooves. Tempo changes are layed down convincingly and sound natural instead of strained.

Because of the complexity of the songs you should play the record often. But as a result of the lousy production you leave it alone. That is of course killing for an album that needs its time to grow. A real shame for the Swedish band, that deserves a lot more. Maybe they were in a hurry, but with a better and more balanced sound, they could have made a bigger impression. Now it leaves you with a bad feeling instead.